The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[wonko]

Yep, seen that. Looks like the new Aeroad is the best all round on there to me, depending on wheel set up. Although very few courses are like the Alpe or Tempus. I still feel an aero set up is going to be better for most people but it would depend on the rider. I haven't raced for a while but I'm top end of Cat C, big power outputs but higher than average bodyweight so in my mind anything with over 500m elevation I'd be best with more of a climbing set up as keeping up with the front pack on the flats isn't an issue for me.

It's the same for me - if I'm going to get dropped it will most likely be on a hill. I rarely bother swapping bikes though and just use the tron as a good default.

The zwift insider tests are great but they are baselined by a 75kg rider at a constant 300w. This means that if you aren't putting out 4wkg for the entire race (which I'd assume most of us aren't) then the margin between the frames is more than ZI say.

My guess is if drafting in a group then I'd struggle to notice the difference between bikes on the flat, and that the differences get more obvious when climbing where W/kg matter and there's less draft as groups tend to spread out.
It would be interesting to see if/how the ZI results change at different weights and power. Gut feel is that at a lower power, there would be less difference on the flat (less speed giving less differences from an aero setup) but that there would be more (time) difference on the climbs.

The tron is coming out top for me on most of the routes I like to race on (sub 30km), some by more than a second. I'm usually beaten by less than that so maybe I should start using one! Should still get rid of it though, although I'm sure someone will come along shortly and be upset at that.

But the Tron goes so well with my Union Flag bucket hat!

 

[grudas]

FTP is a bit like BMI where people love to endlessly debate how accurate it is and how its obviously complete junk because a small fraction of people are misrepresented by it. Fundamentally I have found that if I do the Zwift ramp test, all the other workouts that are based off the FTP that it gives you are in the right ballpark for the stress they are trying to achieve.

that's exactly what I wanted to make sure, that my FTP is at least in the right area as far as zwift cares, now that it is set I'll just leave it sitting there and maybe re-try in a few weeks if I can stay consistent.

The figure given by the ramp test should have automatically been placed in your settings.

Your actual ability may be higher right now, but because you are new to using a turbo indoors, you aren't acclimatised to the heat and lack of air movement compared to outdoors. Consequently, your heart rate for a given power output towards the threshold end of the scale, will be higher compared to outdoors.

With some regular workouts at approx zone 4+ and/or races, with a decent fan or two and a bidon or two of liquid per session, you should find you will acclimatise within a month.

yeah I just checked and it was, so that's all sorted and in place.

that's good to know, will be interesting to see what my performance is like in a few weeks.

I've been enjoying it, not saying it isn't painful but as far as training at home goes, this is quite good.